Using variety to
"freshen up" our meditation

Ajahn
Brahmavamso

Note:

This is Chapter Seven of the book: The Beautiful Breath: The
Comprehensive, Step-By-Step Buddhist Meditation Instruction of Ajahn
Brahmavamso, to be published in the future.

-ooOoo-

Introduction

In this chapter
I'd like to discuss some different types of meditation in order to
increase the repertoire. I hope you're getting the idea by now that in
order to develop sustained attention and to get success in your
meditation there needs to be a certain degree of entertaining the mind,
giving it some joy, giving it some fun. You might find it very useful to
try different types of meditation. It's actually the same basic process,
but you're just using different objects to focus your attention on. By
using different objects to focus your attention on, the mind avoids
getting bored through always plugging away at the same object. This
stops us getting sleepy as well. You'll find a lot of sleepiness, a lot
of sloth and torpor, comes from boredom when you're always doing the
same thing over and over again.

So in my own practice I like to
cultivate a few different objects of meditation. I also teach others to
do the same, especially when they're doing a lot of meditation. Not only
does this give the variety that keeps the mind's interest, it also
develops some different abilities of the mind which you'll find helpful
in attaining peaceful states. In this chapter I shall cover three
different types of meditation: Loving-kindness (Metta), Letting
Be or Letting Go, and Walking Meditation.

Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)

Metta
is the Buddhist word for "loving-kindness." It refers to the
emotion of goodwill, that which wishes happiness for another. It
embraces forgiveness, because Metta says: "The door to my
heart is open to you. No matter who you are or what you have done, come
in." It is that kindness which does not judge and is given freely,
expecting nothing in return. The Buddha compared Metta to a
mother's love for her child (Sn, 149). A mother may not always like her
child or agree with everything it does, but she will always care for her
child, wishing it only happiness. Such openhearted, non-discriminating
kindness is Metta.

Metta
meditation is that meditation which focuses the attention on the feeling
of loving-kindness, developing that beautiful transcending emotion until
it fills the whole mind. There are many methods for developing Metta
meditation. Here is just one way. I'll cover the basic principles with
some instruction in this chapter. (A complete guided Metta
meditation can be found in Appendix. This
section and the appendix are intended to complement and reinforce each
other, and I urge you to make use of both).

Begin with the first steps of the
"Basic Method", presented at the beginning of the book. Take
the method only as far as stage one, Present Moment Awareness.

The way you then develop loving-kindness
meditation is by choosing some object which you find easy to feel loving
kindness toward. The simile I often use is that of lighting a fire. You
need kindling to light a fire. One can't put a match to a big log and
expect the match to ignite that log. The log is far too big. So you have
to find something which will take the flame easily, something which is
easy to light. It could be some of the firelighters you get for
barbecues, or paper, or straw -- anything that takes the fire very
easily will do. You build up the first flames of loving-kindness on that
kindling and then later one can put on more solid pieces of wood. First
of all one uses just twigs and then branches, then you can put big logs
on that fire. It's always the case that only when there's a big roaring
fire -- really strong and very hot -- only then can you put on the big
"sappy logs." The big sappy logs in this simile stand for your
enemies. Sometimes for many of you, the biggest sappy log is yourself!
When you find the fire of loving-kindness is very strong, you can put
yourself on that fire, "dry out" and ignite the biggest,
sappiest log of all.

Once the fire is strong, you can give
loving-kindness towards even your worst enemies. It may surprise you
that you can actually do this. You think of this person towards whom
you've always had anger and wanted revenge, and you find that you are
now in a mind state where you can actually love them, really give them
goodwill. And you're not playing around either. It's actually happening!
This is the result of the gradual process of development of this emotion
called "loving-kindness".

Now as to the "kindling", this
is where you use your power of imagination and visualisation together
with your mental commentary. Here you encourage the commentary, but you
keep your commentary just to a certain topic. You're, as it were,
"psyching yourself up" to develop loving-kindness towards a
small visual object, an imaginary object. Don't be afraid of
imagination, because visualisation and imagination are tools of the mind
that you can use to your benefit.

Keeping your eyes closed, imagine in
front of you a small kitten or a puppy or a baby or whatever you find it
easy to generate loving-kindness towards. (I personally like using a
small kitten.) Imagine it to be abandoned, hungry, afraid, and in your
mind open your heart to it. Take it up gently, in imaginary arms, and
use inner speech to say: "May you not feel so afraid. Be at peace.
May you be happy. I will look after you, be your friend and protector. I
care for you. Whatever you do, wherever you go, my heart will always
welcome you. I give you my love unconditionally, always." Say those
words inside (or similar one's that you make up) with full meaning, even
though it is to a being only in your imagination. Say them many times
until you feel the joy of Metta arise in you heart like a golden
glow. Stay with this exercise until the feeling of Metta is
strong and stable.

Metta

Includes Compassion

Loving-kindness includes compassion, so
you can use compassion to generate Metta. You look at that
imaginary being and focus on its suffering, real or potential. You see
the fact that it is subject to pain -- not just physical pain but also
the mental pain of loneliness and rejection. You see how very vulnerable
it is. When I do this with my little imaginary kitten I always think
that there's no one else in the whole world to look after that small
being. If I don't look after it, if I don't take it in, I just imagine
what sort of death that little being is going to have -- cold, rejected,
hungry, thirsty and sick. When I start to see the suffering (the dukkha),
in that being and how it is so vulnerable to pain, then straight away it
encourages compassion in me towards it. I want to protect and care for
it.

As soon as that compassion, that sense
of looking after the little being comes up, it's very easy at the same
time to have loving-kindness, (which is basically goodwill). Compassion
is goodwill towards someone who's suffering. In this instance it's
goodwill to ease the suffering of that imaginary being, and if its not
suffering, to make its happiness even more delightful. I deliberately
generate feelings of goodwill, of kindness, of compassion and of care.

All of these words are centering in on
this concept of "loving-kindness", and I enter into a
commentary with myself at this time, just imagining what might happen to
that being, imagining looking after it, saying words of kindness, of
protection. I do imaginary exercises like getting eye contact with that
little being. When you can actually contact the imaginary being's eyes
it becomes very emotional. Then I just keep on developing those images.
I continue that commentary until such time that the loving-kindness
towards that imaginary being is really, really strong.

You will find -- at least I find anyway
-- that it's so much easier to light a fire of loving-kindness on such
easy kindling. First of all, my imaginary kitten is a lovely furry
animal. It's imaginary, so I can make it whatever I want. It's young. If
it were actually real even little kittens can sometimes be pests. But if
it's imaginary you've got full control over it to make it as furry, or
as soft as you like. It purrs at the right time, and it doesn't poo on
your lap. So you can do everything you want, just to make it a very nice
little being. It's imaginary. You've got control over it.

Choose An Object You Can Relate To

.

One person I know didn't have much
empathy towards little animals, nor did she like children. What she did
was very innovative. She'd just been planting some small flowers in some
pots in her house; so she just imagined a small plant in the earth. Just
like the little kitten or the puppy, the plant is also a being that
needs care and protection. She put all her motherly instincts, which she
didn't really have towards children, towards that little plant,
nurturing it and just imagining it growing. When it was a young
seedling, it was just so tender and so easily hurt and broken. It had a
long way to go before it was a full fledged flower. She imagined herself
nurturing it, protecting it, loving it, caring for it until such time
that the little flower burst forth and repaid her kindness with this
beautiful smile of a flower in bloom. She really "got off" on
that. That was for her the first time that meditation actually seemed to
work. It was the first time she wasn't waiting for me to ring the bell.
So this is another way of developing loving-kindness, instead of towards
an animal or a human being, towards even a plant. And you can do that.

The point is, as long as you are
nurturing this emotion and making it grow, you're allowed to use your
commentary, and it's good to use it at this point to keep the fire
burning. When you put a match to a piece of paper, you've got to blow;
you've got to fan. You've got to keep it going. Sometimes you need two
or three matches to get it alight. You work until the fire is going, and
once loving-kindness is going, always remember to experience the warmth
from time to time. So you're working to get the fire going, but you're
also pausing now and again, to experience the result of your work. And
as you see the result of your work, it gives you encouragement.

So you're just using this imaginary
"kindling" as a means to develop loving-kindness, to get it
started. As you go along, quite naturally you'll be aware of the feel of
loving-kindness. When the flame starts to take and there's a fire
starting, you can feel its warmth. Loving-kindness when it gets started
is a very pleasurable emotion. Once you start to feel its warmth, then
you really get into it.

Now let go of the imaginary being, and
imagine in its place a real person, someone very close to you
emotionally, your best friend maybe. Choose someone to whom you also
find it easy to generate and maintain loving-kindness towards. With
inner speech say to them: "May you live in happiness. I sincerely
wish you joy. I give you my love, without discrimination. You will
always have a place in my heart. I truly care for you." -- or
similar words of your own design. Use whatever arouses the warm glow of Metta
in you heart. Stay with this person. Imagine they are right before you
until the Metta glows bright and constant around them.

When the Metta glows bright and
constant, let go of the image of that person. Substitute another close
acquaintance, creating the feeling of Metta around them using
your inner speech in the same way: "May you live in
happiness…"

Next substitute a whole group of people,
perhaps all of the people who are in the house you are in. Develop the
caring glow of Metta around them, all in the same way. "May
you all be happy and well…"

See if you can imagine Metta to
be a golden radiance coming from a beautiful white lotus flower in the
middle of your heart. Allow that radiance of loving-kindness to expand
in all directions, embracing more and more living beings, until it
becomes boundless, filling up all that you can imagine. "May all
living beings, near or far, great or small, be happy and at
peace…" Bathe the whole universe in the warmth of the golden
light of loving-kindness. Stay there for a while.

Now imagine yourself, as if looking in a
mirror at yourself. Say with your inner speech, with full sincerity:
"I wish me well. I now give myself the gift of happiness. Too long
the door to my heart has been closed to me; now I open it. No matter
what I have done, or will ever do, the door to my own love and respect
is always open to me. I forgive myself unreservedly. Come home. I now
give myself that love which does not judge. I care for this vulnerable
being called 'me'. I embrace all of me with the loving-kindness of Metta…"
Invent your own words here to let the warmth of loving-kindness sink
deep inside you, to that part which is most frightened. Let it melt all
resistance until you are one with Metta, non-limiting
loving-kindness, like a mother to her child.

When you feel it is time to conclude,
pause for a minute or two to reflect on how you feel inside. Notice the
effect that this meditation has had on you. Metta meditation can
produce heavenly bliss. Now imagine that golden glow of Metta one
more time, originating from the beautiful white lotus in your heart.
Gently draw that golden light back into the lotus, leaving the warmth
outside. When the glow is a tiny ball of intense light in the centre of
the lotus, gently close the petals of the lotus, guarding the seed of Metta
within your heart, ready to be released again in your next Metta meditation.
Open your eyes and get up slowly.

Recapitulation

.

Now to recapitulate what we've covered
so far: when you practice the above method of Metta meditation,
it is helpful to use easy objects at the beginning. Again Metta
meditation is like lighting a fire. You start by using some paper and
kindling which easily takes the flame. Once that is alight, you put on
some thicker sticks, and when these are burning well, you add some
bigger pieces of wood. Eventually, once the fire is established, you can
put on the big pieces of fuel. When the fire is roaring you can even put
on a big, wet and sappy log, and there is enough heat for that to catch
light and burn too. In this simile, the "big, wet and sappy
log" stands for your "enemy," someone you find it
especially hard to forgive and be kind to. This enemy is often yourself.
Once Metta has been established on the easy objects, though, you
will be surprised at how even the "enemy" can "take the
flame" of Metta. You find, in this way, that you can
actually love your enemy.

A Softening of the Mind

Something is happening. It's a softening
of the mind. The mind is turning towards this emotion of love, goodwill
and care. It's becoming selfless, not so concerned with its own needs.
It's becoming more in tune with giving, with sharing with other beings
in this universe. Emotion, when it begins to be generated like this,
feels very beautiful, and as you develop it more and more, that
happiness of the emotion of loving-kindness gets very strong. It gets to
the point that it's self-sustaining, like a fire is self-sustaining.
When it's got enough fuel, then that's when you don't need to keep on
with the commentary of loving-kindness. You can actually just go to its
warmth, just the feeling of loving-kindness.

The feeling is usually centered around
your chest, around your heart region. At least with me it is. It's a
very pleasant physical feeling, and it's a very pleasant mental feeling
as well. It's very joyful to actually give unconditional love to another
being (even one that's imaginary). It's an unlimited loving-kindness,
without any conditions on that love. You're just going to love that
being no matter what it does. That brings out the aspect of
loving-kindness which is a complete embracing of that being, with full
forgiveness, without any faultfinding. When there is full
loving-kindness, the "faultfinding mind" is completely
transcended and there's the "accepting mind".

Loving-kindness is a very useful emotion
to develop in meditation. To repeat: if you can develop a little bit of
loving-kindness meditation like this, then you're softening the mind.
You're softening the heart and you find that there's not so much
faultfinding. You find there's more embracing instead. Faultfinding is
being critical, seeing part of the whole -- especially the part that is
wrong. Whereas loving-kindness embraces the wholeness of something. By
accepting even an imaginary being like the little kitten or little puppy
exactly as it is, you embrace forgiveness. This is acceptance. When you
can develop this acceptance toward a little puppy or a kitten or a
flower, you find that when you do other meditations, even the meditation
on the breath, you can be much more accepting and not so critical of the
process. You won't be so faultfinding towards the moment. You'll find
you have much morecontentment. You'll be able to embrace the
moment as it is rather than being aware of so much that is wrong in the
moment. The whole attitude of mind is changing. "The world is the
world." It's what we add to the world that creates the
difficulties. We can add the faults to the world or we can add
acceptance to the world. It's really up to us.

Looking at the World in a Different Way

Here we're training the mind to look at
the world in a completely different way. We can develop loving-kindness
meditation so that we can regard the world through the emotion of
loving-kindness, embracing and forgiveness. Because we can do that, we
can also transfer that loving-kindness onto something like the breath.
When we are watching the breath, we can watch it with loving-kindness,
with full embracing. We nurture it just like that little seedling.(I
find that if I can generate loving-kindness with breath meditation, it
becomes a very, very powerful combination.)Loving-kindness
avoids the faultfinding mind and gives us the ability to embrace the
breath as it is, and the breath meditation is what's going to take us
into deep and peaceful states. The deep states of meditation, the Jhanas
especially, are emotional states. They're not intellectual states. If we
want to develop those states we have to be able to trust in the
emotions.

Sometimes I say a bit facetiously that Jhanas
are feely-feely states like loving-kindness -- feely, feely, feely!
You've got to feel your way into these states, rather than think your
way in. This is why, when you do loving-kindness meditation with the
breath, you're able to add that emotional sensitivity to breath
meditation. You're able to trust in that part of the mind that can feel
and can delight in just the simple breath. So this is one of the reasons
why it's very handy to do Metta meditation, because it develops
trust in your emotions.

Secondly of course, it gets rid of the
faultfinding mind and especially the hindrance of ill will. As we
discussed earlier in this section (as well as in detail in Chapter
Four), ill will can be directed toward all sorts of people, but
especially toward oneself. I have mentioned that it is one of the big
hindrances to people attaining deep meditation. They simply don't allow
themselves to do it; or they're too critical of themselves and therefore
think they can't do it, and this is very close to ill will. They think,
"I lack self esteem". Lack of self-confidence is right next
door to ill will. So what loving-kindness does is to allow you to
experience the very heights of meditation. It permits you to experience
bliss, and it also gives you the confidence that you can achieve these
things.

So often it's the case that if a person
thinks they can't achieve, they won't achieve. If a person even doubts
whether they can achieve, they won't achieve. Someone -- you! -- is
putting the obstacle in front of yourself needlessly. So loving-kindness
is like a form of encouragement. It frees you to achieve anything that
is there to achieve in the world.

Again: ill will towards oneself is
because of a lack of forgiveness towards oneself. That's why near the
end of a loving-kindness meditation, when the feeling is strong, you can
"invite yourself into your heart", as it were, and give
yourself complete forgiveness. As it says in the Metta Sutta (Sn,
149), "… just as a mother loves her child, her only child."
This is what a mother does to her child. She loves the child, meaning
she gives full forgiveness no matter what the child does in the world.
She'll always be the mother, and she'll never abandon her child. Even
animals can be like this. You know this when you've seen cats with
kittens. The mother cat eats all of the kitten's faeces. It licks the
kittens and cleans them. The mother eats up all their dirt. It's an
amazing sort of sacrifice the mother makes for her children; that amount
of forgiveness and tolerance. This is what we mean by loving-kindness --
being able to accept, embrace and forgive everything. That's the
important part of Metta meditation.

We seek to develop that loving-kindness
towards ourselves so completely that we reach the point where ill will
is abandoned. Only then, when ill will is overcome can we give ourselves
good will, can we wish ourselves well, can we allow happiness to come
into us, and we can start to enjoy meditation. If there's ill will
there, it's such a huge obstacle that it will come up at one stage or
another of the meditation. It can sometimes come up towards the breath.
It can sometimes come up towards the teacher. It can sometimes even come
up towards your meditation cushion -- "stupid cushion!". All
of that ill will is stopping you enjoying your meditation.

Loving-Kindness Is Very Beautiful

So loving-kindness meditation is very
beautiful to develop, and you can develop it at any time. You don't have
to be sitting meditation. You can do it while you're walking on the
path. Develop loving-kindness in whichever way you can, but remember to
try to develop it on simple objects first of all. Once more -- imaginary
objects are usually the best. Build it up until it's really, really
strong. When you have very, very strong loving-kindness, you can either
turn to the breath if you wish (and you'll find the breath is just so
easy to watch); or if you want to, you can carry on with loving-kindness
and take that into a Jhana.

Taking Metta into a Jhana.

What you should do to access Jhana
through Metta, is be able to see the fire of loving-kindness
without any fuel. (The fuel is like the kitten, the puppy, the dear
person, etc.) Just have love. Metta is perceived as a power, as a
fire or as a light -- whatever way you wish to imagine it. However, now
no person is giving out that Metta, and no being is receiving it.
There is just disembodied loving-kindness, rather than it being aimed at
anyone. If you start to focus on what loving-kindness actually is,
rather than where it's coming from or where it's going to, then
loving-kindness by itself, alone, becomes a very beautiful object of
meditation. You become aware of just Metta because it's a very
beautiful object indeed! It's inherently beautiful. Once it's generated,
once the fire is there, it's not that difficult to sustain your
attention on it, because it delights the mind.

However, one of the difficulties is that
Metta without a sender or object is not that stable at first. But
if you can stay with loving-kindness, it delights the mind. Try and calm
the mind down and make it very peaceful and refined. Then that
experience of loving-kindness itself will become your Nimitta. It
will take you into a Jhana: a Metta Jhana. So developing
loving-kindness is one of the ways into Jhanas. But as with all
of these Jhanas, you have to simplify what you are aware of. It
has to become a mental awareness, a mental object -- not a physical
awareness.

Another Approach, Doing Deep Samadhi
First

.

Another way of doing loving-kindness
meditation applies if you've done a lot of breath meditation and got a
deep Samadhi, not necessarily into Jhanas, but at least
some degree of Samadhi. Then you can take up loving-kindness.
When you've already developed a degree of deep meditation or Samadhi
and you take up loving-kindness, it's so easy to do. If you've had a
deep meditation and you start thinking about loving-kindness, you can
spread it to the whole world so easily, because the mind is soft. You
can work with the mind once its has done deep Samadhi. What Samadhi
does to the mind is make it like a piece of clay. If clay is too dry,
you can't make it into anything. If it's too wet and soggy, it just goes
all over the place. But if there is just the right amount of water in
that clay, you can turn it into all sorts of shapes. When there's just
the right amount of softness in the mind (as there is after deep
meditation), you can turn it into anything. You can do beautiful
loving-kindness meditation.

We used to do this chant in our
monastery some time ago. It was the Four Divine Abidings (Brahmaviharas).
We chanted the spreading of loving-kindness, (Metta) and then
compassion (Karuna) and then sympathetic joy (Mudita) and
then equanimity (Upekkha). We did this all in about five minutes.
After one very nice meditation when we started doing this chant, I just
got stuck on the first part (Metta) and I couldn't go anywhere
else. Just as soon as I started chanting, the mind was so workable, as
it were, so easy to point towards whatever I wanted to, that as those
words came up I was just immersed in loving-kindness. I couldn't do
anything else! I got stuck in loving-kindness, a really powerful
loving-kindness as well. I never got to the second part of the chant.

This example shows what you can do with
a mind that is well trained. You can really do loving-kindness
meditation. I discovered from that experience that a lot of the
loving-kindness I had done before was just messing around, scratching at
the surface. So when you develop a very deep mind state on the breath
meditation, it's very good when you come out to do loving-kindness
meditation and experience its power, experience its bliss. Direct it to
all beings, andalso include yourself. Because your mind has been
empowered, loving-kindness is extremely strong, and it can really direct
a lot of benefit towards yourself and towards other beings.

In Sum

So these are some of the ways of doing
loving-kindness meditation, especially to: overcome the hindrance of ill
will, be able to look at the breath kindly and to nurture the breath,
give the mind something else to do so you're not always doing breath
meditation, and to get these very beneficial attitudes of forgiveness
towards oneself and all other beings. This way one isn't carrying around
the faultfinding mind that sees all the mistakes in oneself, and in
other beings, and in the world.

(To continue on with a "hands
on" treatment of Metta, please turn to the Appendix.
Enjoy!)

Letting Be, Letting Go Meditation

Another meditation object that I would
like to discuss is the meditation on "letting be," or
"letting go". This is one of the other meditations that I
often practise. Sometimes instead of trying to watch the breath as my
object, or taking loving-kindness as my object, I look at my mind and
realise the best thing it needs at the moment is just to let things be.
Basically, letting be meditation is just this second stage of breath
meditation, just silent awareness of the present moment. It has to be
silent, because to really let things go means you give no orders; you
don't have any complaints. If you really let things be, you've got
nothing to say, nothing to talk about. "Letting be" happens in
the present moment. You're just aware of things as they're appearing
right now, and you allow them to come in. You allow them to stay. And
you allow them to go whenever they want. Letting be meditation is like
sitting here, and whoever comes in the door, you let them come in. They
can stay as long as they like. If they are terrible demons, you allow
them to come in and sit down. They can stay as long as they like, and
you are not at all fazed. If the Buddha himself comes in all his glory,
you just sit here, just the same, completely equanimous. "You can
come in if you want." "You can go whenever you want."
This is letting be meditation. Whatever comes into your mind, the
beautiful or the gross, just stand back and let it be, with no reactions
at all -- quietly observing, practising silent awareness in the present
moment.

The Garden Simile

I will now introduce the simile of
"Just sitting out in the garden" to explain the letting be
meditation more fully.

Many here in Australia have a garden at
the back of their house and they often spend many hours working in their
garden making it look beautiful. But a garden is to be enjoyed, not just
to be worked in. So I advise my students that they should frequently
just go sit in their "garden" and enjoy its great beauty.

The most stupid of my students decide
that they must mow the grass first, then prune the bushes, water the
flower bed, rake the leaves…..getting the garden perfect before they
can sit down to enjoy it. Of course, the garden never is perfect no
matter how hard they work. So they never get to rest in peace, except
when they're dead (R.I.P.)!

The second type of student also lacks
wisdom. They decide not to do any work, but as soon as they sit out in
their garden they begin to think. "The grass needs mowing and the
bushes should be pruned. The flowers are looking dry and the leaves
really need raking, and the nice native bush would look nice over there,
and….." When they are thinking how they can make the garden
perfect they are not simply enjoying it. They find no peace.

The third type of student is the wise
meditator. They have done a lot of work in their garden, but now is
their time for rest. They say: "Even though the lawn could be mown,
even though the bushes could be pruned, even though the flowers could be
watered and the leaves raked…..Not now! The garden is good enough,
natural even". And they can rest a while, not feeling guilty in the
midst of imperfection.

Letting be meditation is just the same.
Don't try and make everything perfect, tying up all those loose ends,
before you let things be. Life is never perfect and duties are never
finished. Don't even think on how you can make this more perfect.
Letting be is having the courage to sit quietly and rest the mind in the
midst of imperfection, in spite of unfinished business. Let it be for
now. The time for gardening work will come later.

Letting Be Can Become Quite Powerful

Letting be meditation can become quite
powerful. If your breath meditation is not working, if Metta meditation
doesn't work, or you try any other type of meditation and it's not
working, very often it's because you haven't got the foundation correct.
So just do the letting be meditation. You can just "sit out in the
garden" and just let things be. Whatever is happening, that's O.K.
Whatever I'm experiencing is fine -- no preference, no choice, no good,
no bad, no argument and no commentary. "Just let things be."
You can have a little bit of a commentary inside but just the commentary
about "Let be", "Let things go". Just be with what
is; i.e. just be with the commentary that is about the meditation
subject, but not about anything else. That way the meditation becomes
close to complete silent awareness of the present moment.

You can use that meditation as I use it:
if I'm in pain, got a headache or a stomachache or whatever other ache I
have, or if the mosquitoes are biting. "Just let it be." Don't
argue with it. Don't get upset about it. Just watch the feelings in the
body as the mosquito pushes its nose into your flesh followed by the
itch that comes. "Just let things be." Lying in bed at night
and you can't go to sleep. "Let it be." Or there's a pain that
won't go away. "Just let it be." Just be with it. "Just
let it be." Don't try running away. It's like the demons have come
into the room. You're not going to try and push them away. You're not
going to invite them to stay either. You're just going to let them be.

This is equanimity; this is the practice
of letting be. And it is one of the other meditations that I do from
time to time. It can be a useful addition to your repertoire.

Walking Meditation

Walking meditation is beautiful,
especially in the early morning. Often when one gets up early in the
morning, in particular when you're not used to getting up early, you're
quite tired and the mind isn't bright. One of the advantages of walking
meditation is that you can't nod while you're walking. You don't snore
either! You're awake because you have to be. So if you're tired, walking
meditation is very good to do. It brings up some energy, and also you
can get very peaceful.

Walking meditation was both praised and
practised by the Buddha. If you read the Suttas, (the teachings
in the Pali Canon), you find that the Buddha would usually walk
meditation in the early morning. He wouldn't be sitting, he'd be
walking.

Many monks and nuns became enlightened
on the walking meditation path. It's a very effective way of developing
both calm and insight (but not to the extent of Jhana). For some
monks that I know in Thailand, their main practice is walking
meditation. They do very little sitting. They do a lot of walking, and
many get tremendously powerful insights while they're walking.

Another benefit of walking meditation is
that it is especially suitable for those who have physical discomfort in
sitting for long periods. If you find it difficult to sit meditation
because of pains in the body, walking meditation can be very effective.

So please don't look at walking
meditation as a "second class" meditation. If you want to
spend most of your meditation time this way, please do so. But do it
well, do it carefully. See if you can develop that happiness born of
serenity as you're walking backwards and forwards.

Setting Up Walking Meditation

Choose a clear, straight path between
twenty and thirty paces long. This can be a corridor in a house, a path
in the garden or just a track on the grass. Use whatever is available,
even if it's a bit less than twenty paces long. If it's comfortable to
do so, walk without shoes, enjoying the contact of your bare feet on the
ground.

Stand at one end of your path. Compose
the mind. Relax the body and begin walking. Begin walking back and forth
at a pace that seems natural to you. While you are walking, place your
hands comfortably in front of you, and rest your gaze on the ground
about two metres in front of you. Be careful not to look around. If
you're doing walking meditation, it's a waste of time to look over here
and look over there, because that would just distract the attention from
the feet, where it should be.

The Stages of Meditation Apply Here Too

Do you remember the stages of meditation
covered so carefully in the chapters on the basic method (Chapters Two
and Three)? Well, the first four stages apply here too. But here
attention eventually comes to rest on the foot rather than the breath.

At first, aim to develop present moment
awareness, as in Stage one, described in Chapter Two, "The Basic
Meditation: Part One". Use the techniques described there to reach
the state of just walking, easily, in the here-and-now. When you feel
that you have settled into the present moment, where business to do with
the past and future is absent from the mind, then aim to develop silent
walking in the present moment. Just as in Stage Two as described in
Chapter Two, gradually let go of all thinking. Walk without commentary.
Make use of some of the techniques described in "The Basic
Method" to reach this stage of silent walking. Thus you begin
walking meditation by developing the same two initial stages as with
sitting meditation.

Once the inner commentary has slowed to
a bare trickle of inner speech, deliberately focus your attention on the
feeling of movement in the feet and lower legs. Do so to the extent that
you clearly notice every step on the path. Know every left step, know
every right step – one after the other without missing one. Know every
step as you turn around at the end of the path. The famous Chinese
proverb of the "Journey of one thousand miles" is helpful
here. Such a journey is in fact only one step long -- that step which
you are walking now. So, just be silently aware of this "one
step" and let everything else go. When you have completed ten
return trips up and down the path without missing one left step and
without missing one right step, then you have fulfilled Stage Three of
the walking meditation and may proceed to the next stage.

As the attention increases you notice
every feeling of movement in the left step, from the very beginning when
the left foot starts to move and lift up from the ground. Notice as it
goes up, forward, down and then rests on the ground again, taking the
weight of the body. Develop this continuous awareness of the left step
and then similar smooth, unbroken awareness of the right step. Do this
throughout every step to the end of the path. Then as you turn around
notice every feeling in the turning-around movement, not missing a
moment.

When you can walk for fifteen minutes or
more comfortably sustaining the attention on every moment of walking,
without a single break, then you have reached the Fourth Stage of
walking meditation, full awareness of walking. At this point the process
of walking so fully occupies the attention that the mind cannot be
distracted. You know when this happens because the mind goes into a
state of Samadhi (Sustained Attention) and becomes very peaceful.

Samadhi

on the Walking Path

Even the sound of the birds disappears
as your attention is fully taken up with the experience of walking. Your
attention is easily concentrated on one thing, sustained on one thing,
settled on one thing. You will find this a very pleasant experience
indeed.

As your mindfulness increases, you get
to know more and more of the sensations of walking. Then you find that
walking does have this sense of beauty and peace to it. It becomes a
"beautiful step". And it can very easily absorb all your
attention because you become fascinated and peaceful, just putting all
your attention on walking. You can get a great deal of Samadhi
through walking meditation in this way. That Samadhi is a sense
of peacefulness, a sense of stillness, a sense of the mind just being
very comfortable and very peaceful in it's corner of the world.

I started my walking meditation when I
first ordained as a monk in a temple in Thailand. I would choose a path,
and quite naturally, without forcing it, I'd walk very slowly. (You
don't need to walk fast; you don't need to walk slow; just do what feels
comfortable). I used to get into beautiful Samadhi states during
walking meditation. I recall once being disturbed because I'd been
walking too long. I hadn't noticed the time pass, and I was needed to go
to a ceremony in this temple in Bangkok. One of the monks had been sent
to go and get me. And I recall this monk came up to me and said,
"Brahmavamso, you've got to come to a Dana". I was
looking at a space about two meters in front. My arms were in front of
me, and my hands folded. When I heard that, it was as if hearing it from
a thousand miles away, because I was so absorbed into what I was doing.
He repeated, "Brahmavamso, you have to come now". It took me
about one minute to actually lift my head from the ground and to turn it
around to the side where this senior monk was trying to get my
attention. And as I met his eyes, all I could say was
"Pardon?" It took such a long time to get out of that Samadhi
and actually do anything quickly. The mind was so cool and so peaceful
and so still.

I hope you experience this peacefulness
for yourselves when you try walking meditation. Many people I've taught
walking meditation to for the first time have said: "Wow! This is
amazing. This is beautiful". Just slowing down, you get into peace.
You're getting into calm by just watching the sensations as you walk. So
this is one other type of meditation that I am suggesting to you, giving
to you to experiment with.

Choosing the Right Meditation for the
Right Time

Sometimes people ask when one should do
which meditation. How do you choose what to do? A first, you should
experiment with doing different meditations at different times.
Eventually you'll develop the wisdom which knows what your mind is like
and what your mind needs. Observing is the way to find out what type of
meditation to do.

Sometimes your practice is like working
with a piece of wood from the wood yard. You want to make some
furniture, say a meditation stool. The first thing you do is to look at
the piece of wood. Usually, it needs to be planed down initially, and
then you apply the roughest grade of sandpaper, then a medium grade,
then a fine grade of sandpaper. After that you get out a polishing cloth
with some wax or some oil; or if you want to, you coat it with varnish
instead. But if you use a cloth, you use it only at the end, after
you've used the finest sandpaper and the wood is really smooth. Only
then do you get the cloth out and polish it up. This way it ends up as
this beautiful, shiny, smooth piece of furniture. But you have to
examine the piece of wood first of all. If you get a piece of wood from
the wood yard just freshly sawn with all of the burrs on it and you get
the polishing cloth out straight away, you're going to ruin a lot of
polishing cloths. And you're not going to make that wood smooth at all.
In meditation this is like trying to go too deep too fast.

If you look at your mind and it's really
rough and coarse and you want to go straight onto the Samadhi Nimitta,
then you're wasting your time. You've got to get the "plane"
and the "sandpaper" out first of all. Sometimes it is the case
that you get a piece of wood from the shop that is just so smooth
already, that all you need to do is to use the polishing cloth.
Sometimes you may sit down on that cushion and the mind is already so
peaceful that you don't need to go through all the preliminaries. You
just go straight onto the breath, straight onto the beautiful breath,
sometimes even straight onto the Samadhi Nimitta! So you look at
your "piece of wood" -- your mind. The skillful meditator in
you knows what it needs. If it needs loving-kindness, O.K., spend a few
minutes doing loving-kindness meditation. If it needs some "letting
be" meditation because it's quite coarse, just "take it out to
the garden" and let it be. You know what it needs by looking at
your mind and by recognising the state of the mind. This is similar to
the insight practice of meditation that I'll say more about in the next
chapter. You recognise the problems, and you know the solutions.

Conclusion

So these are just some types of
meditation. There's a whole range of other types of meditation that I
could discuss, but this is enough to practise for now. Just to sum up: I
talked about Metta meditation. (Please do some, it is very important and
you'll find it'll help the other meditations that you do.) I've
discussed "letting be" meditation. And I've discussed walking
meditation. Hopefully these ways of practice will help you, as well as
sitting meditation. Try them out; see how they go. Also see if they
don't spill over into your daily life with wonderful effects.

Whatever You Are Doing, Do It With
Everything You've Got

I'll finish this chapter with one last
story. I was with a teacher in Thailand for over nine years, quite a
famous teacher in the world of Buddhism. An Australian man told one of
his teachings to me many years after the teacher, Ajahn Chah, had
stopped teaching. I never heard these instructions myself.

The man had gone to visit Ajahn Chah in
the north east of Thailand, which was a difficult place to get to. He
made a special journey, and when he got to this place -- some seven
hundred kilometres from Bangkok -- he found that Ajahn Chah was
surrounded with people. The man was on the outskirts of these people
trying to ask the questions which he wanted to ask of this wise old
monk, but he found that there was no way he was going to be able to
catch his attention. There were just too many people.

The man had arranged for a taxi to come
back and pick him up later to take him to the station to get the train
back to Bangkok -- an all night journey. The taxi wasn't going to come
back for another hour. He knew he wasn't going to see the teacher and
ask his profound questions. He saw some monks sweeping the paths in the
monastery and he thought, "Well I've come all this way, I might as
well do something useful". He picked up a broom and started to
sweep. He was sweeping the leaves from the path when he felt a hand on
his shoulder. He turned around, and to his surprise and delight it was
the teacher, Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Chah had seen this westerner coming and
not having a chance to ask any questions, but unfortunately Ajahn Chah
had only left the big group around him because he had another
appointment himself. A car was waiting for him. So he just gave this
young Australian man a very simple teaching. He told him, "If you
are going to sweep, sweep with one hundred percent of what you've
got". Then he went away.

This man remembered this teaching that
if you're going to sweep, sweep with everything you've got. And he
realised this was more than a teaching on how to keep the monastery
clean. It was a teaching on how to live life. If you're going to
meditate, meditate with everything you've got; if you're going to write
a letter, write with everything you've got. If you're going to brush
you're teeth, wash your car, take an exam, make that telephone call,
speak with a person near you, give them everything you've got.

This is the way of Buddhist meditation.
It's not that hard! Try walking meditation; you'll find it's easy. Learn
meditation on the breath, and you'll find that easy too. Whatever you do
in life: instead of doing it half-heartedly, quarter-heartedly or
one-eighth-heartedly, give it everything you've got, and you will find
that life will start to come together./.

Ajahn Brahmavamso("Dhamma
Journal", Buddhist Society of Western Australia, July 2001)

Appendix

Guided Loving-Kindness (Metta)
Meditation

-ooOoo-

W

hen
we practise meditation it benefits not only ourselves, it brings
happiness to many others as well. The calmer and more peaceful we
become, the more we can give to others. If there's no peace in our
hearts, how can we give peace to anyone else? So when it comes to
practising compassion, meditation is one of the kindest things that we
can do for others. If we've built up some beautiful energy through
meditation, then it is time to share that energy with other beings,
recognizing that there is a connection between us all. What we do in our
own meditation and practise does have a profound effect on all other
beings throughout the universe. So this is why I will now describe a
guided loving-kindness meditation.

Because this is a guided meditation, it
might be better to experience it as the spoken word rather than the
written word. Therefore you may want someone to read the instructions to
you or perhaps better yet to actually tape record your own guided
meditation. When guiding, it's important to pause from time to time, and
good places to do this are indicated in square brackets throughout the
text.

First of all, sit down comfortably in a
quiet place, close your eyes and give permission to your mind to let go
of all burdens. Allow your mind to let go of all past and future,
remembering that you deserve some peace. Be kind enough to grant
yourself the gift that is the present. Be now, be gently. Now be kind to
your body making sure it's comfortable. Being so careful, because that
is what careful means, "full of care." See to it that even
little things like your toes are all cared for to make sure they are
comfortable. Go through each part of the body, relaxing the body and
offering it some gratitude, some thanks, for allowing you to sit
meditation. Sometimes you may have been quite hard on your body, but now
thank it for giving you the opportunity to be at peace. Let's care for
this body, show it respect. Relax the body into a soft state of ease so
it becomes a fine vehicle for loving kindness meditation.

Take a few minutes just to experience
the body and bring it to ease.

[Pause]

Now let's do a little bit of breath
meditation. Begin with this breath which is feeding you the oxygen which
brings all this good energy into the body. Show gratitude for this
breath as it brings all this energy in, giving light, giving warmth, and
giving that energy to each part of your body. Imagine the breath coming
in and bringing golden light to every part of your body and then taking
out all the used gases. Giving out into the world, as someone said, as a
gift for the flowers and the trees that take the carbon dioxide as food.
Breathing in with gratitude, with care, and breathing out as a gift to
nature. Breathing in and out naturally with a sense of kindness and
warmth towards this breath, giving a sense of kindness and warmth and
gratitude towards this present moment. This present moment is giving you
so much happiness and wisdom. Say thank you, to "now".

[Pause]

Give gratitude to silence, the place
where peace resides, the place where that bliss of freedom bubbles up
like a spring from the ground. Give gratitude to the cool, clear,
refreshing water of stillness. Breathe in so gently, so warmly. Look
upon your breath in that silence as if it were a child born of your own
body, a part of you, something which you caress with your mindfulness,
with softness, with warmth, with care. Trust in that loving attention of
mindfulness as you once trusted as a young child in the arms of your
mother. Be unworried, unconcerned for the future, just as if you were a
baby in the arms of your mother -- being walked backwards and forwards
with the breath, backwards and forwards as the breath goes in and the
breath goes out.

Pause for a while. Enjoy the breath.

[Pause]

Now we will begin the loving kindness
meditation. Choose an object in the mind's eye -- imagining a baby, a
small kitten, a puppy or whatever object you can bring up into your mind
through imagination. Choose an object towards which you find it easy to
generate feelings of warmth, of love, of care. As you visualise that
being in front of you, imagine it has only one person in this world to
look after it and to care for it -- you. If it were not for you, that
small baby, kitten or puppy would surely die - would die of hunger and
cold, or a lack of love.

See if you can look that being in the
eye, and give it trust, give it kindness, give it care. Say to that
imaginary being, "I have kindness and love towards you. I will look
after you, feed you, protect you and love you no matter what happens. I
will always be there for you". As you bring that small kitten,
puppy or baby into your arms close to your chest, still keeping that eye
contact, feel the small being giving you back love, trust, kindness.
Using whatever words, ideas, commentary which you can bring up, generate
more kindness and care, more love towards that small being, such as
saying to that imaginary being: "The door of my heart is always
open to you. No matter what you ever do I will never take away my love,
my care. My Metta is unconditional, unbounded with no
limitations".

[Pause]

You should now make that small being
your very, very close friend. As you give that warmth, that Metta,
that loving kindness -- unbounded and unconditioned -- to that small
imaginary being, notice how it feels inside your own heart. When you
give that love it creates this beautiful warmth, this golden light of
loving-kindness. Just dwell on that imaginary being until that warmth
and that flow of loving-kindness towards that kitten, puppy or baby is
just so strong, as if that being is not imaginary at all but is real.
Give it your wholehearted love, care and protection. "May you be
happy and well forever. I truly care. Whatever you do, wherever you go,
I will always give you my love."

How does that golden glow of loving
kindness towards another being feel inside? Pause for a while. Enjoy the
feeling.

[Pause]

Now it's as if that image of a kitten,
puppy or a baby disappears and in it's place is the image of somebody
who is very close to you in life -- it might be a husband or wife, a
child, a parent or a close friend. Bring them up in front of you,
imagining them in your mind's eye, knowing that they too are fragile.
Without your love and your care, they too will hurt, they too will
suffer. So give the same warmth, kindness and unconditional love to this
person whose life is very close to you. Say to them, "I care about
you; I give you my loving kindness unconditionally. The door of my heart
will always be open for you. No matter what you do I will never take
away my loving kindness. I wish for your well-being and happiness. Your
happiness is my concern, my life-long concern". Give them that
beautiful warm love. "May you really be happy; may you reach peace,
reach Nibbana. May you be free from all suffering. If there is
anything I can do to be of help in that quest, it is my privilege, my
joy to help."

As you give resolutions of loving
kindness towards that person who is important in your life, who you are
imagining in front of you, feel that golden glow in your heart. Feel the
warmth of loving kindness. It's as if you allow that golden glow to
grow, to reach that person so close to you, to go all around them like a
halo. Let the golden glow bathe them and give them energy, happiness and
health. Stay with that glow. Say in your mind, "I wish you
happiness and well-being; may you be at peace; may all suffering end for
you."

[Pause]

Now as you give that unconditional
loving kindness towards your chosen person, allow that feeling of
unconditional loving kindness to grow brighter and even more beautiful.
Pause for a while. Just enjoy the feeling.

[Pause]

When you are ready, let go of the image
of that person. Substitute another person you are close to. Repeat the
process creating the feeling of Metta in the same way. Take as
much time as you wish.

[Pause]

Now it's as if that second close person
has disappeared too. Without opening your eyes imagine a whole group of
people, perhaps all the people in the house you are in. Develop the
caring glow of Metta around them all. "May you all be happy
and well…" See if you can imagine Metta to be a golden
radiance coming from a beautiful white lotus flower in the middle of
your heart. Give loving kindness to all the beings in your home (or
other group), all the visible and the invisible beings. Give your loving
kindness to all these fellow beings. Say to yourself: "I truly wish
you all happiness and peace. The door of my heart in this moment and
forever is always open to you; no matter what you ever do, you will
always be my friends. I give my care to you, all my love, and my
kindness. If there is anything I can do to ease your pain, it is my
privilege to do so". Bathe all the beings in your group in this
increasingly splendid golden glow of loving kindness, "seeing"
a halo around each person joining into a beautiful golden fire of care
and goodwill and gratitude to all of them. As this golden glow of
loving-kindness grows even greater, pause every now and again to feel
what it's like inside you.

[Pause]

As you give selfless love towards
others, you find there is a beautiful warm peace inside your own heart,
a silence, an energy.

Give that golden glow your attention
once more and spread it out beyond the group you have chosen, to all the
people in the city or town where you live. To all the people in your
city or town today who are suffering, who know no peace, who are having
arguments at home, who are lost and alone, never really appreciating or
knowing love. Know their emptiness; fill it with your own love. Give
that golden glow indiscriminately around the whole of the city or town.
"May all these beings be happy and well. May they feel the same
peace that I'm feeling now, and may they feel the same acceptance and
security that I am feeling now. I give this golden light of love as a
gift, to all beings in this city or town. May you all be happy and well.
May you all be at peace. May you all have health and joy in your
hearts."

Pause again and enjoy the feeling.
Savour it.

[Pause]

When you are ready, spread that golden
glow wider and wider. Spread it to all the people in your home country.
As it gets wider and wider, as it goes over the whole of this planet, it
gets more beautiful. Say to yourself: "May all beings -- human,
animal and invisible -- may all beings be happy. We are all friends in Samsara,
in perpetual wandering from lifetime-to-lifetime; all beings are subject
to old age, sickness and death just like me. I give you my happiness as
a gift. I give you my love; the door of my heart will always be open to
all beings. I wish you well. I wish you peace, sincerely, with all my
heart. This moment is for you."

Pause yet again.

[Pause]

Now direct your loving kindness towards
the whole universe, telling yourself: "May all beings -- great or
small, invisible or visible -- may all beings be free from suffering.
May all beings realise the bliss of Enlightenment. May all beings know
that ultimate happiness, selflessness, love, freedom and peace. This I
give as a gift to all beings."

[Pause]

As this beautiful golden glow spreads,
notice how it feels inside -- this unbounded, unconditional
loving-kindness spreading over the whole universe. How does it feel
inside you? How does it feel knowing that you are giving the whole
universe that wonderful golden glow of love as you did to the images of
people in your home, your best friend, a little kitten or puppy or baby?

Pause again.

[Pause]

When you are ready, put an image of
yourself in front of you. Without opening your eyes, imagine you are
watching in a mirror this person you have lived with since you were
born, the one closest to you. Give yourself that golden glow. Say to
yourself: "The door to my heart is open to me. I give myself my
love, come inside." Then say this to your own image, "I wish
you all happiness and well-being; whatever faults you have I forgive.
The door of my heart is open to me no matter what I have ever
done." Give unconditional love to this being inside, who we call
"me." Say to yourself: "I allow myself to be happy. I
give myself permission to be free. May I be Enlightened. May I be at
peace, free from all suffering." Give yourself that beautiful
warmth of love and kindness, indiscriminate, unconditional. Bathe
yourself with the golden glow of Metta. Keep with that feeling of
loving-kindness as long as you like. Enjoy it. Abide in it.

[Pause]

When you feel it is time to conclude,
pause for another minute or two to reflect how you feel inside. Notice
the effect that this meditation has had on you. Metta meditation
can produce heavenly bliss.

[Pause]

Now imagine the golden glow of Metta
one more time, arising from the beautiful white lotus in your heart.
Gently draw that golden light back into the lotus, leaving the warmth
outside. When the glow is a tiny ball of intense light in the middle of
the lotus, gently close the petals, guarding the seed of Metta
within your heart, ready to be released in your next Metta
meditation. Now, when you are ready, open your eyes and get up slowly.